The Flood
by microstar
Summary: Hermione's memories of the place that she is trying to escape from come flooding back with the rain.


Disclaimer: If I was the real JK do you actually think that I would be posting my work on fanfiction?

"As Long As You're Mine" in from the musical wicked, which I alos do not own any part of. (except for my CD and collector program of course"

Bold-Song Lyrics

Italics-Flashback

Today was unbearably hot, hotter than anything I could have possibly imagined. Oh, I'm sure that for any normal Californian, today would seemed nearly as hot as it seemed to me. But, being the good British girl that I am, I felt like I was melting every moment of the day. It seems rather ridiculous that someone like me who was born, and raised across the Atlantic Ocean would be here in sunny California trying desperately to find some sort of job that would support me instantaneously. Picking up all of my things and fleeing across the ocean is not exactly the most intelligent rational, but at the moment it seemed like the only option for me. I had to get away and fast.

So, my fruitless search was dramatically hindered today by the incredible heat that seemed to be soaked in and magnified by one hundred by the heavy black robes that had always served me so well at home. Thus my complete surrender to the world and it's severities was admitted and I retreated into my tiny hotel room trying to make myself content with the life that I had now chosen for myself. Needless to say I was having trouble convincing myself that I had acted well. For a woman who was considered to be the brightest student in her class, this decision was not the brightest or most carefully planned that I had made.

So deep in my mental laceration of myself, I did not notice the darkening of the clouds and the yellowing of the sky until a huge thunder clap ripped thorough the silence of my room and mind. As I reached the window and pulled back the heavy, dusty curtain, I witnessed heavy rain drops beginning to fall over the parched parking lot and adjoining brown lawn. As I watched the other parched humans run for cover, fat drops began to run down my own face, mirroring those that were soaking the cats and cars of the outer world. That sudden and heavy rainstorm finally broke that stubborn dam that I had made the right choice in running from the world that held all of my memories and stories. I could finally admit to myself that living out of a tiny hotel closet, washing my hair with those complimentary bottles of shampoo, eating supper at the tiny, second rate deli on the corner, and trying desperately to impress prospective employers with my dirty, wrinkled robes was not at all the life that I would have chosen for myself when I graduated form school.

Now I missed my mum and dad and my best friends and my cat, whom I had left to fend for herself, in the incredibly dirty and "dangerous" apartment of one of my dear school chums. The tears began to flow even harder when I began to remember all of those times that I loved and lived back home. Like when I was six years old and my dad had decided to teach me how to throw and catch a ball. He was going to make me a star Cricket player girl or not. What he didn't realize was, I was absolutely hopeless at anything that involved throwing, catching, hitting or running.

"Daddy, I don't wanna throw the ball," little me had whined when he had dragged me out the door and into the back yard.

"Pumpkin, I know that you can do it. Just give it a go," he commanded, showing ultimate patience, that would not last for the entire session if I didn't stop whining about the activity.

I had given the hard little ball an pathetic little toss and watched it land only just in front of my little feet. My dad, willingly fetched it and put it into my small, chubby hands, encouraging me to try again.

After a few rounds of the same routine, my dad's superstar patience was wearing thin and my skill was not increasing by any great lengths, or by any lengths at all really. We were both nearing the breaking an quitting point when the temperamental English weather ended it for us instead. All of a sudden, like magic, the skies opened up and God began to sob at my terrible attempts to throw a ball. I grabbed my dad's hand and we ran to the cover of the huge tree that was conveniently placed in the corner of our back lawn.

From the vantage point of our relatively dry hideaway, my dad and I watched the falling rain until God had sufficiently water logged the world and had sufficiently recovered from his depression at my atrocious throwing skills. From then on, when ever there was a sudden summer storm, my dad and I would watch it from our cozy little spot under the tree. Incidentally, he never tried to teach me how to play catch again, although I have every book on the subject of Cricket know to man, a medium that I can understand and connect with on a better level.

After the sharp and sudden memory of my dad and my first encounter with a summer shower, memories began to flood my brain of all of my most precious moments with my friends and family.

It was the summer between our fourth and fifth years at Hogwarts and for days on end we had been scouring, scrubbing, dusting, and exterminating everything that moved, or didn't move for that matter, at the stately and decrepit family home of the Black clan.

It came as a well earned reward when Mrs. Weasley, told us that we were to have the rest of the afternoon off. It had been raining incessantly all day but we didn't care, all we wanted to do was to get out of that dismal, musty house. We took the plate of sandwiches and jug of milk that Mrs. Weasley had provided us for lunch out onto the back terrace and presently devoured them.

After the sandwiches had disappeared, we all simply lay around on the cool bricks of the terrace, watching the rain fall and groaning on the account of our full bellies. All of a sudden, Ginny leapt up and ran out into the rain giggling madly.

"Ginny Weasley, " Ron yelled, "You get your little butt back here, Mum will kill you if you track mud into that house and we'll end up cleaning twice as hard tomorrow."

"Oh, don't be such a spoil sport, Ronald," Fred yelled and he and George ran to join their mad little sister who was currently spinning in circles, only moments away from falling smack on her bum.

"I can't believe them," Ron muttered, more to himself than to me, "Mum is going to have their hides."

Something in his tone made me think of myself and all of the times that I myself had held back or instructed Ron and Harry to be sensible and read a book or something boring like that, not that books could ever be boring to me but I'm sure that is what they felt. That something in his tone made me do the exact opposite of what the normally sensible Hermione would usually do; I jumped up, grabbed Ron's hand, and dragged him into the downpour to enjoy it was his siblings were.

At first his cries of protest were louder than everyone else's peals of laughter and shouts of joy but after Ginny lobbed a gigantic handful of mud directly at him, he let go and joined in their messy and chaotic afternoon amusement. Of course, when we came traipsing in the house hours later, covered head to toe in mud, the yells of Mrs. Weasley were louder and more terrible than those of Mrs. Black's. And, consequently the next few days were filled with harder cleaning than any of the previous and probably any that we would experience for the rest of our lives.

As my memories wandered, they traversed the years of Hogwarts and all of the escapades and scrapes that Harry, Ron and myself had gotten into. My brain ran over all of the tests and papers, the friendships and feuds, the victories and failures, and then settled on one of the most important memories of and life changing moments of my school career and life.

It was the last night of our career at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and in honor of the graduating seventh years a final ball was being thrown. As it was to be the last important, excepting of course the graduation ceremony, all of the students in our class, including the boys, were terribly excited and anxiously awaiting the hour that would mark the beginning of the ball. Hours before the ball all of the girls of the seventh year, and a few of the luckier sixth and fifth years who had been offered invitations by the graduates, disappeared to prepare their, what would be hopefully, stunning and unforgettable ball looks.

Amidst the chatter of Lavender and Pavarti and the friends that they had invited to get ready with them, I carefully began to apply my makeup and ruminate over the past seven years that had shaped my person and filled my brain with more knowledge than I ever expected could hold. When I had finished my makeup, I went to work on the bushy mess that I liked to consider my hair. Looking in the mirror when I was quite finished, I was pleasantly surprised by what I was. I had managed to transform a relatively plain girl into quite a beauty. My scarlet robes clung quite gracefully to my newly developed curves, my lips were fuller due to the brilliant red lacquer that I had swiped over them, and my bushy hair has been transformed into soft curls that were pulled up into a loose concoction held back with about a thousand bobby pins and a blood red rose that I had mad sure to charm so that I wouldn't die over the course of the evening. And now I was finally ready to show myself to the public and more importantly, my dearest friends.

With a soft swish of my robes accompanied by the click of my ridiculously high heels, which I had been required to purchase due to the extreme height difference that existed between me and my date, I made my descent down to the common room. Upon arriving I saw Harry, and on Harry's arm was Ginny, stunningly dressed, which she seemed to carry of with much more grace and ease than I felt at the moment , and then my eyes lighted upon my own date, Ron. We had decided to go together when we learned that Harry and Ginny were going together, attempting to keep our little foursome together and although we were going as just friends I could suppress the little thrill that ran up my back when I saw him looking so handsome in his brand new, tuxedo-inspired robes. He had grown so much, he was almost 6 foot 5 now, over the course of the years that when the ball was announced he had had to go scrounge up some money and buy himself a new set of dress robes. He offered me a wink and his arm and our little group then left to go down to the great hall to join the others at the ball.

The evening had been going splendidly without a single hitch, we had enjoyed a fabulous dinner and danced all evening. I had been pleasantly surprised by the dancing talents that Ron seemed to have recently acquired, so we had simply danced the night away. It was nearing the end of the evening and Ron and I had been abandoned by Harry and Ginny who had disappeared to some dark corner of the room. We were completely exhausted by all of the previous dancing we had done and we decided to take a breather. Sitting on the sidelines of the floor we began to discuss our favorite Hogwarts memories. Before too long Ron noticed the pointed absence of his sister and our best friend.

"Now where in the bloody hell have Harry and Ginny disappeared to. I don't see them on the dance floor or by the punch bowl. If he does anything to my baby sister…" Ron had always been a tad, to say the least, overprotective of Ginny and didn't really approve of anyone being with his sister no matter who the boy was.

But I interrupted him before his rant could really gain any momentum, "really Ron, you ought to let your sister grow up a little, in your mind that is. She isn't the 11 year old who sent Harry the singing valentine. I'm sure that they are holed up in some dark corner doing something that you wouldn't expect or imagine from the child that you think she is which she actually left behind many years ago."

I had meant this little speech only as a little jab to his humor, only teasing him but he seemed to take it more to heart and his demeanor became frosty and angry, "I suppose you would know about those things, considering all of the time that you spent with Vicky," he almost barked at me.

Now normally by our last year, I would have simply laughed off this barb about Victor Krum considering our little thing had been in the fourth year, but this time I wasn't going to take it. This was supposed to be a wonderful last night at Hogwarts and Ron had gone and ruined it by bringing in an ages old affair that had always sparked disagreement between us. It was more that he was trying to cause another argument on this perfect evening than the meat of the argument that made me angry.

"So you are going to bring him up again Ron? Really one would think that after three years you would have gotten over your stupid jealousy and realize that Victor Krum and I are completely OVER!"

"Don't flatter yourself Hermione Jane Granger. I am not, and never was jealous of you and your dear admirer Vicky Krum. There are plenty of other girls that am attracted to."

"Oh really is that so Ronald Bilius Weasley, well then why is it that I am your date tonight and none of those 'other' girls," our little spat was turning into a full blow yelling, screaming fight which was gathering a crowd.

"Because I didn't think that anyone else would ask you and I didn't want you to be dateless for the last ball of our year. There were plenty of others who asked me but I said no because I had to take you instead."

His last comment was the one that pushed me over the edge, I opened my mouth to retort but found that I had no voice and instead my eyes began to well up with tears. So the substantial crowd that had gathered to watch our row would not see me cry I tore out of the hall, outside to the patio that had been set up for those of the students who had come to find the Great Hall to confining. I sat down on one of the stone benches and buried my face in my hands, trying to dam up the hot tears that were coursing down my cheeks.

I cried alone in the garden, frustrated and mortified that I had let Ron's stupid prodding get to me. I also hated to admit but had to recognize, that Ron's words about taking me to the ball out of pity had hurt me very deeply. Deep down I had been secretly hoping that Ron would suddenly realize some pent up and buried loving feeling that he held for me. I had realized not to long before the ball that the love I felt for him was something much deeper than that of a friend. And so I cried for the loss of a perfect evening and the loss of the hope of a love that I thought I deserved.

The tears kept coming for what seemed like hours, nothing seemed to stem the flow of them until I heard the soft shuffle of what sounded like tentative steps. I sat up quickly and forced the torrent flowing from my eyes to cease and wiped my cheeks, I'm sure smearing the makeup already covering my face to look even more like war paint. I'm not sure who I had expected to be there in front of me but the tall, blue eyed, redhead was certainly the last person.

"Hermione, I am so sorry for all of those horrible things that I said to you back there. I didn't really mean them," was Ron's first peace offering.

"Ron, I don't know what to say. Honestly I would think that by now we would be beyond fighting about Victor. It seems so stupid that after three years, his name can still make us both see red."

"I know. It does seem rather sad that he can still set us off. Well I guess that that's about it," Ron said as he turned to go but snapped back around even before he had taken five steps, "this Victor Krum thing might be stupid but what is more stupid is, our dancing around our feelings for each other. I didn't ask you to the ball to go as friends, I asked you because I am hopelessly in love with you Hermione. I don't know what I would do if I didn't see your face everyday. I love your hair and how truly chocolaty it is, I love the way you chew on your lower lip when you are reading, I love when you nag Harry and I to study instead of playing something completely useless like exploding snap, I love the little dimple that you have in your left cheek and I love that you've never given up on me over all of these years that I have been a complete prat."

I was so astonished by this sudden, forceful delivery of Ron's innermost feelings, I was struck dumb. I simply stared at my best friend with my mouth hanging slightly open. I must have stood there a shade longer that would have passed for the generally allotted time for speechlessness because, Ron's triumphant expression began to melt into one of hurt and confusion and he turned on his heel to go back into the great hall and escape my dumbfounded expression.

His turn and retreat was the thing that snapped me out of my surprise, I flung myself into a run and grabbed his hand before he could reach the shelter of the hall and many people, and pulled him back to me. Then I did something that the normally level headed Hermione would never had even thought of, I pushed myself against him, stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his. So involved in this kiss were we, we didn't even notice the fat raindrops that were beginning to fall on us.

When we finally broke apart, flushed and breathless, the rain had turned to a downpour and we were becoming thoroughly soaked.

"Come on 'Mione, let's go inside before we get totally sopping," Ron said grabbing my hand and trying to lead me into the dry ballroom.

But I broke free from him and rushed back out into the rain with a little shriek of joy. In my happiness I spun and danced in the pounding rain letting out peals of laughter and cries of delight, "Come on Ron, don't be such a spoilsport, come dance with me."

He looked at me for a few moments with a bemused expression on his face and then a grin broke over his face and he ran to spin in the rain with me.

We danced, splashed and spun until we were out of breath and sopping. When we began to slow down the strains of a beautiful song began to drift through the opened doors and surrounded us in it's magical chords. The woman's words seemed to speak to my entire core and fit perfectly with the feeling that were coursing through my body.

Kiss me too fiercely

Hold me too tight

I need help believing

You're with me tonight

My wildest dreamings could not foresee

Lying beside you

With you wanting me

Just for this moment

As long as you're mine

I've lost all resistance

And crossed some borderline

And if it turns out

It's over too fast

I'll make every last moment last

As long as you're mine

Ron looked at me and caught my eyes in his searing glance as the man began to sing his section of the duet, "dance with me Hermione," and with that he drew me in close and we began to sway with the melody. The rest of the words soon were lost as we became intricately involved with each other, letting the rest of the world drift away. During the final whispers of the song, Ron took my face in his hand s and kissed me the way I had always dreamt of being kissed.

Maybe I'm brainless

Maybe I'm wise

But you've got me seeing

Through different eyes

Somehow I've fallen

Under your spell

And somehow I'm feeling

It's "up" that I fell

A huge thunder clap broke me out of my reverie of the first time that Ron and I had shared our love. I jumped a bit and wiped the tear that had been following the tracks of it's compatriots down my cheek and attempted to get a hold of myself. Then a bolt of lightening split in the sky in an awesome display of what mother nature could do when she was angered. That flash of light pulled me into the last time that I had seen the sky slashed like that.

It had only been a few weeks ago that Ron, Harry and myself had been sitting in the Three Broomsticks drinking butterbeers and trying entirely too hard to pretend that the second war was not driving on in full force. In the two years that we had been out of school, we had been forced to grow up faster than anyone should have and could have expected us to. We had seen more killing and battles than any of our parents and were becoming hardened to the more delicate features of the world. We no longer had time to stop and smell the roses, as it were. We barely had time to see each other, what with Harry furiously training to be the youngest and most important Auror in history, me apparating all over the country to all of the various medical care facilities trying to lend my "expert" knowledge to any of the injured or dying, and Ron working with Dumbledore as his master strategist, planning battles and the light side's plan of attack. For some reason though, we had all found ourselves in the same, worse-for-the-wear pub on uncannily sweltering summer evening. We of course had stayed in touch and Ron and I were making a valiant attempt to hold our relationship together, but we really hadn't seen each other for weeks, and in a time when people were constantly disappearing and dying that was a lifetime.

We had tried to make the impromptu visit one of laughter and joy but as was the tendency of the day the conversation began to stray to the news of the war, Harry's tales of his fights with scores of death eaters, my stories of the horrors I had seen in the rooms of the injured fighters and civilians, and Ron's constant speculations over different strategies. Our lives seemed to only consist of death, destruction with the little flitter of hope that was the only thing that keeping us forging on the path of resistance.

"Did you know that Seamus Finnigan was killed in the last offensive in trying to recapture Azkaban," Harry pondered quietly giving up on trying to make pretty conversation.

I gasped in horror, "No! It can't be. Does Lavender know? Oh God! They were to be married when this mess was over. I can't take this anymore. Who else is going to have to die before this is over? How many more families and happy couples are to be destroyed before HE will be happy," I was screaming by the end of this tirade and had gained quite a few spectators. Looking around and realize that my rant had been overheard by most of the pub, I leapt up and ran out of the pub, hoping to gain some solitude and relief from all of the prying eyes. I slumped over , my back against the building in the alley between the pub and the building adjoining it.

"Mione," Ron's voice softly broke my angry fit and I turned to him finding solace in his arms. As he held me, gently stroking my hair, he asked, "are you alright love?"

"I just don't want to do this anymore. I am so tired of hearing of about all of the lives that have been destroyed . I don't want to learn that another of our classmates have been killed. I just want to live safely and happily. I have seen enough death and destruction to last me two lifetimes. All I can think of is poor Lavender and how she and Seamus will never have that little wedding or buy their dream house or bring their first child home from the hospital. Now all she will have is a gravestone and a hole in her heart."

"But Mione, she has all of her happy memories of their time together. She found a love and in this world that we are living in right now it is important . I know that she and Seamus lived through their love and made sure that their lives meant all that they could. They knew that in the times that we live in nothing could be permanent so they made the most of it. That's what we all have to do now. In fact Mione, I have to ask you something," he pushed away from me and began to fumble in one of his pockets.

All of a sudden, it clicked, Ron was going to propose to me. I couldn't handle that at that moment in time. I knew that it would be wrong. This was the wrong time to do this. He was supposed to do this because he was terribly in love with me and couldn't live without me not because the was looming over us and we could die the next day. He was supposed to propose to me in a garden with fairy lights and perfumed air wafting around us, not in a dingy, smelly alley with bums littering the perimeter, "No Ron, please don't do this, not now not here," I begged.

But he ignored me and got down on one knee clasping my hand which had become instantly clammy and cold, "Hermione Jane Granger, will you please honor me and be my wife?"

"No, no please not now," I whimpered unable to think or say anything else.

The famous Weasley temper began to flare, after all, Ron had just proposed to me, he had just put his heart on the line and logically I should have been jumping up and down and kissing him, "what? Would there be a better time to do this? I love you Hermione. I want to marry you. It shouldn't matter when or where I propose to you if you really want to marry me."

"Ron, I love you more than anything in this whole world. I do want to marry you but I can't do it now. I can't imagine living without you but if we got married and then you were killed, I couldn't live . I would die if I lost you. I don't want, I can't explain," my feeble attempts at trying to explain myself had failed miserably and I gave up and let the tears come.

"Mione, love I know, I know. This is hard for all of us but if we're together it will be easier,"

"No Ron, I can't, I love you too much to loose you," my tears becoming sob at this point.

In an effort to stem my sobs Ron took me into his arms again and rocked me like a little baby. And as he held me there the strains of the song that had played during our first night as a couple, the night of the graduation ball, played from somewhere on the main road. As the familiar song continued on Ron began to sway with the music and we danced in the alley.

Every moment

As long as you're mine

I'll wake up my body

And make up for lost time

As the song progressed the sky opened and took over for me in the crying department. My face looked up into his and our mouths sought each others in a hungry, passion filled kiss. Ron looked into my eyes, begging me with his for the answer that he wanted and deserved.

"Marry me, love. Marry me," he begged.

My breath caught in my throat and only croaked out into a sob, " Ron, I love you, I love you, I love you. I can't, I just can't. I have to go away. If I go away maybe then you'll forget about me and we won't have to go through the pain if one of us dies. I can't," I hoped desperately that my explanation would make more sense to him than it did to me.

"Fine, Hermione, fine! If that is what you want, I will leave you alone and never bother you again," with that he threw the ring that he had been brandishing away into the alley with a clink and turned on his heel, making his way back into the Three Broomsticks, not ever looking back at me.

I stood in the dingy alley for a long time after that, watching the sky for some sort of answer. It came to me in the form of a gigantic lightening bolt that light up and ripped through the sky, breaking it in half like my heart. After that answer, I made my decision. I decided that I would escape the ugly world that I was tried of living in. I had just severed myself from the only ray of light that it had afforded me and now I had nothing left. I decided then and there that I would gather my sparse belongings and move as far away as possible from England, the war, and Ron.

I picked up my feet and started to slosh out of the alley, but then I remembered the glinting circlet of metal that Ron had flung away. I hurried back and combed the dirty strip of road. After quite a time of searching I suddenly came upon it. It was a little plain silver band set with a single, circular diamond. I wiped the muck off of it and pocketed it, to keep it as my only token of my lost love. Then I left the alley thanking the rain for disguising my tears.

As I pulled myself out of the last painful memory, I noticed that I had been playing with the delicate silver chain that hung around my neck. Haltingly I pulled the chain out from underneath my robes. It flopped out and landed heavily on my chest due to the thing that was hanging from the bottom of it. Dangling from the gentle bend, sparkling as if it had a life of it's own, was the dainty ring that should have been gracing my finger, if my answer had been different and sane.

I decided then that if I was going to take this walk down memory lane, I might as well go fully down it. I dug around in one of my boxes and found buried beneath my frying pan, the thing I was looking for. I walked to the ancient CD player and lay the CD carefully in and pushed play. Out of the rather beat up speakers came flowing, as lovely as ever, our song. I sang along, knowing every word and note by heart. And for some reason I felt that I needed share this song that held so much importance to me with the rest of the world. I flung open the windows of my room and even opened the door leaving the screen shut tight. Then I began to dance around my room and sing at the top of my lungs trying to force all of the memories associated with the song back into the recesses of my mind.

The duet was coming to the end where both the man and the woman were singing in harmony and I was belting the song at the top of my lungs. Leaking through all of the racket I was making and the volume of the music was what sounded like another voice singing with my own, but it was a man's voice. I stopped my sad attempt at singing and listened for the voice that I thought I had heard but all I could hear were the sounds of the torrential rain and the song playing on repeat. I just chalked it up to my imagination and memories and continued my mad singing and dancing. The second or third time that the song had ran through, I collapsed on my hard little bed and let the song finish itself without my ample and not really necessary help. I lay on my back and closed my eyes listening to the song and the rain blend musically together. Yet again when the man came in for the last time I heard someone else join in. My eyes popped open and I sat up on the bed, there in the doorway stood a tall man with brilliant red hair.

"May I have this dance Miss," he said taking my hand and guiding me to the center of the room but then he took a turn and lead me right out into the rain and we dance the rest of the song with the water dripping down the tips of our noses.

Say there's no future

Of us as a pair

And though I don't know

I don't care

Just for this moment

As long as you're mine

Come be how you want to be

And see how bright we shine

Borrow the moonlight

Until it's through

And know I'll be here holding you

As long as you're mine

The song ended and we stood holding each other in the rain for a few minutes before I opened my mouth and queried, "What in the world are you doing here Ron? How did you find me?"

"Hermione, I let you get away from me once and I'm not going to let you escape again. I don't care what kind of world I live in as long as I have you. I want you to marry me right away. I want to live the life together that we deserve and judging from what we know about this day and age, the only sure way to do that is to get started right away. So there I've said my piece and I won't take no for an answer."

"Oh Ron, I'm so glad that you found me. I was an awful dolt and wish that I had never done what I did. Of course I will marry you, I wouldn't have anyone else."

"Of course I don't have the ring anymore but," I stopped him by yanking the necklace off of my neck and dangling it in front of his face, "you've got my ring. Where did you find it?"

"I thought that it was my ring," I said with a giggle and scampered into the room ready to play a little game if keep away.

He, of course chased after me and caught me around my waist, pulled me in and embraced me. Then he dropped to one knee and slid the shiny bauble onto my ring finger where it belonged. At last all of the wrongs had been righted and the order of the universe, well our universe, had been straightened. Ron, got up and closed the door and began to help me pack my scattered things for the trip home.

I'll make every last moment last

As long as you're mine


End file.
